African Nations’ Participation in the 2018 World Cup in Russia

AFP

Vic­tor Moses’s penal­ty had giv­en Nige­ria hope against Argenti­na before they con­ced­ed a late goal

Edi­tor’s Note: As the 2018 World Cup in Rus­sia pro­gressed we assigned Ife Nwosu to give us a score­card of what was hap­pen­ing. Here you’ll find Ife’s obser­va­tions, first record­ed in July.

This year’s World Cup is tak­ing place in Rus­sia. And as always, the com­pe­ti­tion is fierce,
espe­cial­ly among the four African coun­tries still par­tic­i­pat­ing. Even though Egypt, Sene­gal, Tunisia, and Moroc­co still have a decent chance of win­ning, they seem to be lack­ing in the World Cup. Por­tu­gal beat Moroc­co one to zero, and Rus­sia beat Egypt three-to-one. But on the bright side, Nige­ria beat Ice­land two-to-zero.

The match between Nige­ria and Ice­land was par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ing. The play­ing started
off slow with both coun­tries lack­ing in agili­ty. But once Nige­ria kicked the ball into Iceland’s goal, the play­ing sped up. And Ice­land didn’t look hap­py. But Nige­ria scored a sec­ond time, mov­ing them to an impres­sive sec­ond place in Group D.

Accord­ing to Volk­er Finke, the rea­son for Africa’s lack of suc­cess has “less to do with
sports and more with the organization…and infra­struc­ture[.]” He states that this is why North African teams are stronger as they are more struc­tured with­in their train­ing camps. Finke’s claim is pre­cise. Ath­letes need the prop­er amount of resources, shel­ter, and nutri­tion so they can keep their heads in the game.

What’s inter­est­ing about Africa’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the World Cup is that no African team
has ever made it to the semi-finals. Nige­ria has been an active coun­try in the World Cup, par­tic­i­pat­ing six times in the tour­na­ment. Argenti­na has been a fre­quent oppo­nent of Nige­ria, how­ev­er, Nige­ria has nev­er won against them, mak­ing them more pumped for this year’s tournament.

2018 marks the fifth time Moroc­co has engaged in the World Cup, how­ev­er, their lack of
defense, strat­e­gy, and orga­ni­za­tion has kept them from win­ning, time and time again.
Egypt is the most suc­cess­ful team out of all the African coun­tries in the World Cup,
win­ning the Africa Cup of Nations an impres­sive sev­en times. How­ev­er, even with all of Egypt’s astound­ing stats, it wasn’t enough to get them to the fin­ish line.

Tunisia is a spe­cial case. They have been par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Cup a total of five teams
and it wasn’t easy for them to make it to any of the major finals. How­ev­er, the North African coun­try has learned from its mis­takes and recent­ly invit­ed Rani Khedi­ra to join its team, show­ing that there is strength in numbers.

Sene­gal is the high­est-ranked out of all African teams, with a cur­rent score of 27 on the FIFA world rank­ing board. How­ev­er, Senegal’s lack of expe­ri­ence might be the cause of them not mak­ing it to the semi-finals.